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In this week's "Inside the DoD Reporter's Notebook," the Pentagon is making some adjustments to the role of its chief information officer; DoD awards contracts for its first large-scale financial audit; the Pentagon's acquisition chief says a few high-profile "lowest-price technically acceptable" cases have blown the whole thing out of proportion and Jessica Wright, who's served as the undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness since January 2013, announced that she'll be retiring at the end of March.

Two early pilot programs have shown the Pentagon that it can reduce overhead spending by carefully studying its excess costs rather than cutting each office's budget by an arbitrary figure. Once expanded across DoD's support agencies, the savings could run into the billions.

The Defense secretary issues specific directions to implement a 20 percent cutback in the size of his own sprawling support staff, including the elimination and consolidation of several senior positions. Gen. Martin Dempsey will deliver plans to cut the joint staff by 20 percent in the coming weeks, and all military organizations commanded by three or four star generals will do the same.

Donald Adcock, who served from 2010 until this
month as the executive director of the Army
Information Technology Agency, has left the
Pentagon to become the associate CIO for IT
services at the Department of Energy.

Fourteen years ago, Congress passed the landmark Clinger-Cohen Act, creating the job of chief information officer in federal agencies. How has the job changed over the years, and what do today's CIOs think of their role?